Critical minerals: Mines Ministry's KABIL in talks with Zambia, other countries for acquisitions

Hyderabad, Sep 16 (PTI) With already acquiring mineral blocks overseas, Khanij Bidesh India Limited (KABIL), a JV under the Ministry of Mines, is in active negotiations with several other nations, including Zambia and Chile, to acquire assets, Union Minister for Coal and Mines G Kishan Reddy said here on Tuesday.

Addressing the 6th tranche of Critical Minerals Blocks Auction Launch and a seminar on Centres of Excellence, Reddy said that as demand for electric vehicle batteries and renewable energy is likely to increase almost three times by 2030 in the globe, India needs a strong Research and Development ecosystem that will help fulfill the needs of the country's future.

India has allotted roughly USD 4 billion to achieve the seven pillars of the National Critical Mineral Mission while the US allotted just USD 1 billion for the same sector to be developed in that country, he further said.

"We are also acquiring critical mineral assets across the world. Our PSU-KABIL under the Ministry of Mines has already acquired lithium blocks in Argentina and is in active negotiations with several other nations, such as Zambia, Chile and other countries. We are also entering into MoUs in several countries, such as Japan, Peru, Australia, UAE," Reddy said.

As part of India's critical mineral mission, the Union Cabinet approved a financial incentive scheme to boost the country's recycling capacity. Along with this, the Centre recently brought about the next phase of reforms through the MMDR Act 2025, he said.

The Coal minister further said the Centre established coal and mineral exchanges to enable transparent trade and had set up mining of deep-seated minerals like lithium, cobalt and nickel facilities.

Listing out the initiatives for critical mineral development, the minister said the union government is ready to fund mine acquisitions overseas and removed the 50 per cent open sales limit on captive mines, leading to the industry a greater flexibility and scale.

In order to encourage investments, the central government has removed import duty on almost 23 critical minerals.

The Coal minister said today the 6th tranche of auction of critical mineral blocks was launched, as many as 23 blocks were put up for bids.

According to him, some states, including Telangana, Punjab, Uttarakhand and West Bengal are also participating in the critical mineral blocks auction for the first time. PTI GDK KH